WSOP November Nine Profiles: Eric Buchman

Eric Buchman is the second member of the November Nine that PokerNetwork will be previewing and he also comes into the final table of the Main Event second in chips behind Darvin Moon.

The 29-year old professional poker player came into the World Series of Poker Main Event with 22 live tournament cashes to his name and over US$900,000 in tournament earnings. He is now guaranteed a further US$1 million for his appearance in the November Nine.

Some of his career highlights include coming within a whisker of a World Series of Poker Bracelet in 2006. On that occasion he had to settle for a second place finish in a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event.

Other than the near miss at the 2006 WSOP, Buchman rates his 2007 Atlantic City World Series of Poker Circuit event runner-up finish as a career highlight. That result paid out US$208,000.

Buchman also won the 2004 New England Poker Classic for a US$250,000 score.

He enters the final table as the best placed pro, with many expecting Darvin Moon’s lack of big tournament experience to put him at a disadvantage against Buchman, despite holding nearly a two-to-one chip advantage.

Buchman isn’t let any of it concern him right now.

"I'm happy right now but I got lucky a few times in the last few days (of Main Event play)" said Buchman. "I'm pretty tired right now - I deserve a vacation!"

That luck Buchman refers to probably occurred late on the seventh day of play. Shortly after the dinner break with the blinds at 50,000/100,000 and a 10,000 chip ante, Buchman open pushed with {ah}{th} for three million chips and found Jonathan Tamayo call with {jx}{jx}.

He would need a bit of luck to stay alive, and it arrived in the form of a {9h}{7h}{2h} flop. From there he parlayed the double up into ten million chips by the end of the day, and played small ball throughout the last day to move up to his current stack.

Buchman apparently plans to take a leaf from Dennis Phillips’ book, by bringing a sizeable and rowdy rail to cheer him on.

"When I come back I'll bring a lot of people with me, around 30. All the players in my local game will want to come,” said Buchman.

His goal for the final table?

“Just making it to the final table is an accomplishment, but anything less than first would be disappointing at the moment. I'm sure once all is said and done - I'll be very happy”.

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